Design And Construction Of An Automatic Water Level Indicator (With Transistor)

ABSTRACT

This project is titled the design and construction of a water level sensor system. It is designed to indicate the level of water to over-head tank.

The circuit uses the widely available CD4066, bilateral switch CMOS IC to indicate the water level through LEDs.

When the water is empty the wires in the tank are open circuited and the 180K resistors pulls the switch low hence opening the switch and LEDs are OFF. As the water starts filling up, first the wire in the tank connected to S1 and the + supply are shorted by water. This closes the switch S1 and turns the LED1 ON. As the water continues to fill the tank, the LEDs2 , 3 and 4 light up gradually.

The no. of levels of indication can be increased to 8 if 2 CD4066 ICs are used in a similar fashion.

When the water is full, the base of the transistor BC148 is pulled high by the water and this saturates the transistor, turning the buzzer ON. The SPST switch has to be opened to turn the buzzer OFF.

TABLE OF CONTENT

TITLE PAGE

APPROVAL PAGE

DEDICATION

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

ABSTRACT

TABLE OF CONTENT

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.3 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1.4 APPLICATION OF THE STUDY

1.5 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1.6 PROJECT ORGANIZATION

CHAPTER TWO

2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 REVIEW OF DIFFERENT TYPES OF WATER SENSOR

CHAPTER THREE

3.0 CONSTRUCTIONS METHODOLOGY

3.1 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

3.2 CIRCUIT DESCRIPTION

3.3 CIRCUIT OPERATION OF THE WATER INDICATOR

3.4 COMPONENTS USED

3.5 THE WORKING PRINCIPLE

3.5 POWER SUPPLY UNIT

3.6 POWER SUPPLY UNIT

3.7 SPECIFICATION AND OPERATION OF SYSTEM COMPONENT

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0 CONSTRUCTIONS

4.1 CIRCUIT OPERATION

4.2 CIRCUIT DIAGRAM

4.3 COMPONENTS REQUIREMENT

4.4 WORKING OF AUTOMATIC WATER LEVEL CONTROLLER

4.5 COMPONENTS PIN-OUT

4.6 POWER SUPPLY UNIT

4.7 POWER SUPPLY COMPONENTS

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0 RESULT ANALYSIS

5.1 INSTALLATION OF THE COMPLETE DESIGN

5.2 CONSTRUCTION PROCEDURE AND TESTING

5.3 CASING AND PACKAGING

5.4 ASSEMBLING OF SECTION

5.4 TESTING OF SYSTEM OPERATION

5.5 PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

5.6 COST ANALYSIS

5.7 DESCRIPTION OF COMPONENTS USED

CHAPTER SIX

6.1 CONCLUSION

6.2 RECOMMENDATION

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

This work is titled design and construction of Water Level Indicator. It is best suited for overhead water tanks to display the amount of water. The circuit consisting of 4 LED’s used to indicate ¼, ½, ¾, full levels.

Nowadays everybody has overhead tank at their homes. But everyone who has a water tank above knows the kind of problems that they face. Firstly there is no system to track the water in the tank. Then there come a secondary problem that is when their water pump is started they have no idea when it gets filled up and sometimes there are situation where the pump keeps on pumping water to the tank and the water startsspilling out from the tank. There is wastage of energy as well as wastage of water.

Basically the unit is made up of various sensors acting as a switch. Let me explain in a simple way. What happens is when you turn on you water pump, the water starts to get pumped from your underground reservoir or from your underground water supply from the pipes to your water tank. In the tank there is a set of sensors ( to be precise there are 4 sensors), in the water tank. Just think them as a switch, as the work of the sensor will be to connect a circuit. I will explain in details in my instructables. So the water starts to get filled in the tank and when the water level in the tank starts to rise up, what happens is that the sensors that is installed in the tank starts to get activated one by one indicating the water level in the tank. And finally when it reaches to its top most sensor, there will be a visual display as well as a sound from the unit indicating that the water has filled in the tank and one can be alerted that the tank has been filled up and the water pump has to be switched off saving the electricity bill as well as over flow of water from the tank.

There are Four parts in this project:-

(i) The Sensor Part

It is generally a fixed support inside the tank having some nuts and bolt with wires coming out.

(ii) The Circuit Part

It comprises the brain of the module, where in all the various inputs from the sensors are fed. It is the unit from where you will get all the information of how much of water is in the tank.

(iii) The Power Supply

It is the part where in you will be converting the A/C voltage to a regulated voltage of 12V to the Circuit.

(IV) The Buzzer Part

It is responsible for bringing up the sound when the water level fills up in the tank. It will also be having a speaker or a buzzer to alert.

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

To institutionalize social regulations level that govern the allocation, use and management of water for the different purposes.

To achieve equitable and sustainable access to groundwater to all farmers through sharing of resources and socially regulated demand management of the resource.

To achieve equitable and secure access to water for drinking, sanitation and domestic needs at affordable costs for all households or company within the project area and project period

1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Significance of water level is as follows:

Suitability: These water level controllers are ideally suited for normal water as well as for ultra low conductivity water with less than 1 micro/moh.

Easy to Operate: this system come fitted with sensitivity setting which can be provided externally on a dial or with internal settings.

Settings: It is equipped with technology which works on low or high sensitivity settings on the same machine and thereby saves costs of buying and using two different machines.

Materials of Construction: this water indicator system is protected the against corrosion.

Safety: This system is highly insulated, leakage proof and works without creating any noise.

Save roofs

Save water

Save electricity

1.4 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

This system provides you the flexibility to decide for yourself the water levels for operations of pump set in upper/lower tanks.

Built in Indications for showing Full, Empty Levels in Upper Tank and Lower Tank Empty Indication.

Manual operation switch for special operations like watering the plants from pump set.

The system ensures no overflows or dry running of pump there by saves electricity and water.

Consume very little energy, ideal for continuous operation.

1.5 APPLICATION OF THE PROJECT

Water level indicator is an application which detects the level water then triggers the pump and blows alarm and vice versa. They are useful devices and play an important role in various industries such as automobile, irrigation, and also at homes, or wherever water is pump either underground or overhead.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE PROJECT

Sensors used are built with conductive material, which means that they are subject to rusting or corrosion. When rusting occur the sensors will stop conducting thereby causing this device will stop working.

1.7 PROJECT WORK ORGANISATION

The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the project is organized sequentially as follows:

Chapter one of this works is on the introduction to water level indicator. In this chapter, the background, significance, objective limitation and problem of water level indicator were discussed.

Chapter two is on literature review of water level indicator. In this chapter, all the literature pertaining to this work was reviewed.

Chapter three is on design methodology. In this chapter all the method involved during the design and construction were discussed.

Chapter four is on testing analysis. All testing that result accurate functionality was analyzed.

Chapter five is on conclusion, recommendation and references.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0     CONCLUSION

The course of undergoing this project has disclosed numerous important things about a water level indicator. Ranging from its economic importance and recommendation based on the use of this water level indicator. Hence with the successful design and construction of this project, a more efficient way of ensuring continuous flow and pumping of water is provided even in the absence of the operator. This provides the possibility that is can still indicator the level of water in the tank to the user. The water level controller can be used in Hotels, Factories, Homes, Commercial complexes, Drainage, etc.

• Fuel level indicator in vehicles
• Liquid level indicator in the huge containers in most big companies

5.1     RECOMMENDATION

This project is designed to be used in our homes and industries where the need for accurate flow and pumping of water is needed. And should be used and maintain by a qualified personnel.

You will need to power the circuit with a 6V DC supply which can provide 100mA or more current. The transistor BC148 maybe substituted with any general purpose transistor such as BC548, 2N2222, PN2222 etc.

Remember to turn the switch ON while pumping water otherwise the buzzer will not sound